How Can My FDH Visa Holding Fiance Transition into A Dependant Visa With 6-12 Months to Go Before We Get Married?

Documenting proof of the genuine nature of your relationship is a condition precedent to the grant of a dependant visa with the burden of proof decreasing the longer you have been married. Consequently, the newer your relationship / marriage the greater the onus is on you to satisfy ImmD that this relationship does not exist just for visa purposes.

QUESTION

Dear Stephen,

I’m a 41 year old Brit who has been living here for 3.5 years. I am on an employment visa.

My Girlfriend is Indonesian, has been here for 1.5 years and is currently on a 2-year domestic helper contract (and visa) that will end in January 2020

We have been together for 6 months and plan to get married in the next 6-12 months.

The domestic helper visa/girlfriend scheme is obviously out of the question since it’s against the law and I’ve read somewhere else on your site not to get married for visa reasons.

But, knowing immigration’s obvious bias against Filipinos and Indonesians, what will I need to do in order to prove to immigration that we want to marry in order to be together here and start a family and also provide her a better situation? (I’m obviously looking to have her as a dependant).

Just to share our mindset on this: I consider myself a proud immigrant here and not an expat and my girlfriend and I consider that our right to live here is way too important to risk it by “gaming the system”.

My early and cautious assumptions on this, given immigration’s bias, is that they might ask for proofs of relationship so I’ve already started backing up our whatsapp conversations to cover that side of things.

What is the best way to prove to Immigration that we are marrying for the right reasons?

The Hong Kong Visa Geeza (a.k.a Stephen Barnes) is a co-founder of the Hong Kong Visa Centre and author of the Hong Kong Visa Handbook. A law graduate of the London School of Economics, Stephen has been practicing Hong Kong immigration since 1993 and is widely acknowledged as the leading authority on business immigration matters here for the last 24 years.

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RESPONSES

pete mills

4 Aug 2018 am31 8:18am

01

I am a U.S. citizen.My fiancé is a Philippine FDH who has worked in HK for same family for four years. Last year her employer asked her to renew her contract, she said no, employer offered to bring her to the U.S. this summer with them on vacation and allow her to spend two weeks here with me if she would renew. She agreed to renew contract. Two months ago the employer told her they changed their mind about going on vacation with her as the cost was too high.

The contract I am under here ends next spring when I will travel to HK to marry my fiancé. We have all the paperwork in order and have just one question. When my fiancé gives her notice to quit one month before the date I will arrive as is required by her contract conditions, this will put in motion the requirements for her to exit HK fourteen days after her last day of employment. What we have learned from information about getting married in HK is that a ‘honeymoon’ period is allowed after marriage during which the bride and groom may stay in HK. Will this override the fourteen day exit rule of quitting her contract?
Thank you for your assistance.
Sincerely